


the human partner's guide to a selkie delivery

by mintmagic



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Birth, Interspecies Relationship(s), Labor and Delivery, M/M, Mpreg, Selkie AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 07:10:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20870240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintmagic/pseuds/mintmagic
Summary: After an exhausting trip to the Falkland Islands, Kylo finally goes into labor.





	the human partner's guide to a selkie delivery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StarKillerBae (Luciferous)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luciferous/gifts).

> For StarKillerBae's selkie AU. If you know me in person, please never speak of this.
> 
> Contains minor graphic depictions of bodily functions related to labor.

Morning in the Falkland Islands begins with a thin beam of sun filtering through the windowpanes on the east side of the house, casting a bright spot directly on Hux’s face. Kylo is restless beside him, making soft huffing noises in his sleep and shifting around on his side. “Shh, shh. I’m right here,” Hux whispers, gently patting his mate’s rounded belly.

Kylo’s eyes open a few millimeters under heavy lashes, glassy and unfocused. He whines deep in his chest, and Hux realizes—the curve under his hand is taut like a drum, the bump seemingly straining outward. Hux’s mind races, but he doesn’t speak. He just keeps rubbing his hand in steady circles on Kylo’s flank until he relaxes back into the bed, the muscles in his abdomen softening once more.

Shit. A contraction?

He peers over Kylo’s shoulder at the clock. Kylo sleeps peacefully a while longer, but just a little under twenty minutes pass before he’s squirming again. This time, Hux rouses him with a gentle shake and a kiss on his temple. Kylo’s hair, he notices, is beginning to dampen with sweat, despite him not being under the blankets.

The selkie props up on one elbow, the other instinctively cradling his stomach. His eyes are bright with worry when he looks over at Hux. Their pup—finally—but are they ready?

“Let’s get you down to the water,” Hux says. He strokes his mate’s flushed cheek with his knuckles. “While you can still walk, yeah?”

All the human pregnancy books Hux read in the past months said that fewer ten minutes apart is the right time to go to the hospital, but Hux doubts he can make the kilometer trek to the shore while supporting a laboring selkie with an incredibly broad, dense frame. It’s best to go now, he thinks, while Kylo isn’t in too much pain. If he needs to stay in the ocean a day or two, so be it.

Hux hurriedly brews some coffee while Kylo dresses in a light robe and suitable shoes. The smell of dark roast fills their little cabin, promising one haggard soon-to-be father a few more hours of wakefulness. Hux dumps it straight into a thermal flask and sets up a second brew, then rushes back to the bedroom to check on Kylo again. He seems perfectly alright, staring longingly out the window at the sea while he brushes the tangles from his hair and ties it back. Hux gives him a peck on the cheek and sidles around him to the sink, quickly brushing his teeth.

Once the brief preparations are through—and Kylo has ridden out another contraction with his arms braced on the kitchen counter and Hux rubbing his lower back—the pair set out for the hidden cove Kylo scouted out weeks ago. It’s a quiet place far from any potential tourists, mostly closed in by rocks and private enough for the selkie to choose as a safe harbor for pupping. Mercifully, no one is out and about in the early morning mist to see them, odd sight that they are. A round, waddling man of Kylo’s height dressed in a bathrobe and an eccentric researcher loaded down with a hiking pack would probably raise some eyebrows.

The walk down to the cove is almost pleasant, except for about halfway there when Kylo winces and groans and Hux realizes that twenty minutes has become more like fifteen. Kylo hisses through his teeth and leans on Hux, trembling with the effort of keeping quiet. The last thing either of them want to do is wake the other residents. “Just a bit further,” Hux says. “You’ll feel better as soon as we can get you into the water.”

Kylo nods, but the far-off look on his face suggests that he isn’t really processing Hux’s words. “Water,” he echoes. “Y-yeah.”

“And you,” he gently chides the baby, “You be patient.”

\--

The cove itself is a still, quiet place mostly protected from the tides. Not even the gulls seem to know about it. As soon as Kylo waddles unsteadily through the natural gate in the rocks, Hux sees the tension drain from his posture. Kylo eagerly sheds his shoes and robe, sinking naked into the pool of water at the center of the cove. By the time the ripples on the surface subside, his legs have been replaced with a sleek, gray tail and a series of mottled gray marks have appeared on his upper body.

Hux stows his pack by the entrance and takes off his shoes. No need to sit around in waterlogged socks, and he knows Kylo will want him as close as possible. He brackets his mate with his legs, sitting on a stone lip overhanging the water. It’s warm, thankfully. Not too warm for Kylo, but warm enough that Hux isn’t concerned about losing his toes.

After a few moments of glorious soaking, Kylo draws in a sharp gasp. His tail contorts under the water and he reaches for Hux’s left leg, clinging to it for support. So much for the contractions being eased by the water, Hux thinks. Kylo still looks thoroughly miserable as he cries out for his selkie family, the eerie noises carrying far down the shore.

“It hurts, do something,” Kylo pleads, turning those soft brown eyes up at Hux.

“I know, sweetheart.” Hux doubles over to press a kiss to the top of Kylo’s head. “You can do this, and I’ll be right here with you. Your family will be here soon.”

\--

Part of the trouble with interspecies relationships is that one ends up acting as both the birth partner and the midwife. Hux has little experience with seals or with humans, but a wealth of knowledge from the internet that he hopes will be enough until Leia and Rey arrive.

Kylo reclines on the shallow, sandy slope of the far side of the cove, eyes squeezed shut and teeth sinking into his lip as Hux’s narrow fingers dip into the slit in his tail. This is far from the pleasurable “examinations” conducted in the Arctic.

“You’re doing great,” Hux croons. “Much more opened up than when we first got down here. You said you felt their head moving down?”

Kylo nods and opens one eye. “I-it’s pressing more on me.”

Hux’s cold hands roam over his stomach, carefully feeling for the pup inside. What seems to be a tail flicks against the pressure, confirming that, yes, their baby is properly head-first. “Easy there,” Hux says, grinning. “I’m just checking on you. Feisty little thing.”

\--

Rey arrives first, hauling her half-seal body onto the rocks above the surf and shouting, “I’m here, where’s Kylo?”

Hux guides her through the channel to the cove, where she promptly takes her place at Kylo’s side. He’s resting for the moment, arms folded on the rocky lip and floating in the water, tired out by the sun high overhead. Things seem to have slowed down, though he assured Hux earlier that the moon would help.

“Brought you something,” Rey chirps, reaching into the ratty recycled pouch at her waist. She presents Kylo with a handful of enormous prawns, which he eagerly begins biting the heads off. Hux winces as Rey turns to him and says, “You didn’t feed him properly, and now look. He’s all worn out!”

“I didn’t want to leave him,” Hux protests. “I can go get him something now that you’re here.”

Both of them stop abruptly as Kylo gags, shuddering all down his frame as his abdomen tenses up and heaves with another contraction. Rey blanches from head to tail and pats his back, murmuring to him in their selkie tongue. Luckily, the prawns remain inside Kylo instead of back up on the rocks. “I just—ate too close to a contraction,” he pants, reaching with shaky hands for another prawn.

\--

After a snack and a little time on the shallow end with Hux cuddling him, Kylo seems to perk up. He spends a few contractions on the sand, reclining against Hux’s chest and surrounded by his legs again, then dips back into the water to cool off and float. It does seem to help, Hux observes. Bearing all his weight on land seems to make Kylo struggle more.

Hux sips his coffee and waits nervously for Leia to arrive, hoping she won’t miss the birth of her grandchild. Kylo seems remarkably calm, though that could be due to the pain clouding his mind. It must be hard, Hux thinks, to focus on anything other than delivering their pup.

Luckily, Leia arrives in the early afternoon, laden with all sorts of supplies for Kylo’s labor. Rey escorts her up to the cove while Hux stays with Kylo and rubs his shoulders, coaching him to breathe through another wave of pain.

“Mom,” Kylo mumbles blearily, “you made it.”

Leia nuzzles his cheek and pats his stomach. “Of course I did. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” She gives Hux a dirty look that most definitely has to do with the difficult journey from the Antarctic, but mercifully says no more on the subject. “Have you eaten?”

Kylo nods and Rey butts in to announce that, yes, she brought him prawns, because his useless land-legs mate didn’t know to feed him. Hux just frowns. “Let him focus,” he snaps. “Can’t you wait a minute?”

Once Kylo’s arched posture relaxes and he sinks in the water, he licks his lips and sighs. “I didn’t feel hungry,” he explains. “I was too focused on the pup. And you know Hux isn’t like us. He only knows what humans do.”

Proud of his mate’s defense, Hux nods and crosses his ankles protectively in front of Kylo’s chest. He’ll be polite for now, but he would really appreciate if the selkies would stop scolding him.

\--

Around sundown, Kylo manages a few more prawns. As he told Hux, the contractions begin to pick up, growing closer together and stronger in their intensity. Hux slips into the water with him to examine his pelvic slit again, and this time, the opening is much wider. He isn’t sure how fast a selkie labor is supposed to progress, but Leia and Rey don’t seem concerned by the length of it.

While Hux is fussing over his mate, kissing his forehead and assuring him that he’ll get to hold their baby soon, he notices a strange warmth in the water. They both glance down to see a cloud of diluted peach color spreading between them, and Kylo’s eyes widen in surprise. “Oh,” the selkie breathes. “I—I felt that.”

Hux turns to the other observers, his mouth set in a tight line. “I think his waters have broken.”

“Won’t be too much longer,” Leia agrees. “When I had him, it was only another few hours.”

\--

As the moon rises over the sea, Kylo grows restless. He breaks away from Hux to toss and turn in the water, arching his back and writhing as though if he moves enough, the baby will just slide out. He barely has time to catch his breath before another contraction slams into him, and Hux feels something deep inside his own body ache in sympathy. He can hear Kylo’s moaning from the surface, the seal sounds carrying further than a human voice should, and Rey and Leia look just as tense as he feels.

Kylo returns to him, snuggling up between his legs, wild-eyed and breathless. “Mom,” he pants, “I gotta push.”

Rey takes her place by Kylo’s side, supporting his lower half, and Leia treads water at her son’s front. With Hux at his back, Kylo is completely surrounded. They work in near-silence, only interrupted by the lapping of the waves and the grunts and moans from the laboring selkie in the middle of their cluster.

Before long, something dark begins to bulge from the slit in Kylo’s tail. Leia guides Kylo’s hand to it. “That’s your baby’s head,” she says, a bit misty-eyed. “They’re almost here.”

Kylo whines and glances up at Hux. There’s no way he can reach, so Hux just kisses his mate’s head. “You’re doing fantastic, Kylo. Head and shoulders are the worst bit.”

More of the amniotic fluid leaks into the water as Kylo strains and Leia carefully works the pup’s shoulders out. The pup has Kylo’s dark hair for sure, and little speckles on their shoulders. One arm slips free, then the other. Kylo trembles when his mother tells him, “Just one more big push,” and Hux leans down for another kiss to reassure him.

Kylo throws back his head and cries out as the next contraction washes over him, and the pup tumbles into Leia’s waiting arms in a cloud of blood, still tethered to its mother by a thick cord. Leia holds the pup above the surface as it coughs out saltwater and mucus, carefully passing it to Hux. Kylo sinks into his mate with a sob, oblivious to Rey’s continued work as she gently kneads his belly to ease out the afterbirth.

With a squirming pup in his arms, Hux feels strangely helpless and unprepared. What is he supposed to do? Wait—clear the airway. Get the pup warm. Let Kylo hold it. He grabs an aspirator from his kit to clear out the pup’s nose and mouth, then gives them a brisk rub with a flannel until they begin to whimper and cry, turning pink under their gray seal color. He passes the pup back to Kylo and helps him cradle the little bundle against his chest, smiling with relief as their pup nuzzles around for its first meal and latches on.

The baby’s muffled noises of contentment ease the tension, and finally, Hux and Leia share a wet, weepy smile. “We did it,” Hux says, his voice thick with emotion. “Oh, Kylo, you did great…”  
Leia leans against the rocks and gently strokes the pup’s head while it nurses. “A perfect little pup. Well, not so little. I’ll cut up some seaweed for you to help get your strength back in a little bit, okay?”

Kylo looks ready to fall asleep, and Hux has no intention of moving him. Tonight, he’ll sleep beside his mate’s pool, keeping watch with Leia and Rey over the tiny new pup. The pup will be in someone’s arms all night, and when they take their little one home to dry land, they’ll finally get to see their human form with ten little toes. For now, though, Hux just rolls out his sleeping bag near Kylo’s head and watches him feed their baby.


End file.
